I live in American Fork, Utah, with my husband, Philip, and my 6 children. I am a stay-at-home mom, and taught 4th grade for a couple of years before we had children. I have to say that motherhood has been much more of an education than all my preparation to be a teacher!
I have loved being a part of this project and have really enjoyed reading all of your posts. I was nervous that I would fall into the trap of comparing myself, like I am prone to do, but have been so inspired by your goals and have loved knowing that other people struggle with the same things I do. :)
That said, my goal for January was to establish the habit in our home of reading the scriptures together every morning at 7:30am. We have always tried to read together right before bed, but now that my children are getting older, they aren't always home at night when it is time to read. So, we decided to take the plunge and start the morning schedule.
It went really well the first week. My kids were all there, prompt and ready. In fact, one morning after a long night up with the baby, my children read the scriptures without any parents! That was awesome.
Then, as the weeks have gone on, we still have some in bed--the older ones are there, but I just don't have the heart to wake up the younger ones--and their sleep-deprived father. HaHa! :) I have been thinking about linking it to a privilege of some kind, as an incentive to get them all there on time. I'm not going to lie, there have been many times that I have wanted to quit and just go back to night time, but I know that mornings will be the best if we want to be consistent.
What have some of you done that has worked?
13 comments:
We have ice cream when we finished a book: Nephi, Mosiah, but we're in Alma now and they've forgotten about it, it's taken so long. Our attempts are better when kids under 5 are already asleep...just saying. I'm so glad you're doing the project and found it inspiring--I have too. Your family is just gorgeous!
Awesome goal!! We do mornings too and we only wake up the kids who go to school (occasionally the little ones wake up early on their own and join us and they love it). One of the best things we've done is assign one of the kids to wake everyone up. It counts as one of their "jobs" and we rotate after a year or so. Even though I get up before the rest of the family (that hasn't always been the case) I still let the assigned child do the waking. Keep at it. With consistent effort it will be a habit and the blessings are too many to count :).
Thank you, Nora! Great idea on the ice cream...maybe we could do ice cream half-way through Alma too. :)
I'm glad to hear that you don't worry about the little ones. That makes it a lot easier!
Thank you for the encouragement, Becky! I love the idea of taking turns waking people up. Great plan! So good to hear that I don't need to worry about waking up the little ones. That takes some stress off of me. :)
My kids are all still fairly young and my husband has always put them to bed with books. A few years ago he added in the scripture study and since they had already been reading books, it was a smooth transition--and they don't mind the fact that they have scriptures on their ipod and kindle;). I'm sure it won't be so easy as kuds get older and busier...
Remember Pres. Hinckley's challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 2005? Well, my family is STILL plodding through as a group. So sad. I've tried so many different approaches. My teenage son's work schedule really messed with our dinnertime/evening attempts. Plus, he's super surly in the morning, and scripture study became a sore point (yet another area in his life where he felt we were "pushing" him). He sometimes comes home for lunch. He balked when I asked if we could read scriptures together during this time, but he has been receptive to my sharing a favorite passage here and there while we eat. I need to keep trying, and not let one bad day -- or ten -- derail the attempt. I also need to share my love of the scriptures and let my children see me reading them on my own.
While not a replacement for actual scripture reading, we've enjoyed pulling a picture from the Gospel Art Kit at dinner time, and reading the story on the back. It was a good match for my younger children's attention spans -- plus when we encountered those stories in the scriptures, they were more familiar to my children.
Reading in the morning is a worthy goal! It isn't easy, but it is much less likely to get left undone. Our families secret to success is to keep it simple. We just read 10 verses a day. It doesn't take long and everyone stays with us a bit better then when we read a whole chapter.
Cutest family & great job on the morning study. That is my dream to make happen someday, but my husband leaves for work too early for the rest of the fam, so we do the 8:30 pm at the kitchen table routine right now. On Sundays, we do Scripture Skittles and the littles LOVE that. (Choose a few words that occur frequently where you're reading, then when the word is read everyone gets to eat a skittle.)
That's the way we do it, too. Scripture study in the morning is the only way that works for our family. We sit around the table (well, I'm scurrying about getting breakfast for everyone). We get the kids up at 6:45. Except when they're off track or in summers. Maybe I need to make that a goal. Keep up scripture study even when out of school!
Way to go on the morning scripture study! We really need to do this... but my husband's schedule is so tough right now. He's home... in the middle of the day! Oh boy... I don't blame you for keeping the little ones in bed.
I love your creative ideas! I can sneek it in anywhere anytime! Thank you
I love that idea! That might even motivate my teenager to join in. Haha!
It is so smart to have it in the morning and at a scheduled time.
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